This relates to the fields of chemistry and microbiology, and more particularly relates to chemical extraction of fungus from a plant.
Agricultural crops and ornamental plants are often plagued by parasites such as fungi. In particular, rice crops are highly susceptible to infection by the fungus Pyricularia oryzae (rice blast, also known as Pyricularia grisea).
Fungal infections of plants spread quickly from one area to another and, if not treated, will destroy entire crops. Numerous anti-fungus treatments are available. However, treatment must be commenced shortly after infection for the optimal effect and crop salvage.
Farmers often have difficulty detecting or identifying fungal disease until days or weeks after the onset of infection, allowing the fungus to become established and much more difficult to eradicate, resulting in the destruction of all or a large portion of the entire crop before the treatment takes effect. Therefore, rapid detection of a fungus infection is essential for effective treatment and ultimate crop survival.
A current method for the detection of the fungal infection of wheat known as Septoria or "cereal eyespot" involves grinding the wheat in the presence of a buffer to remove any fungus that may have been growing on the wheat, and testing the resulting buffer for the presence of fungus with an immunoassay. The major disadvantages to this method are that the grinding procedure is labor intensive, time consuming, expensive, and requires specialized machinery or equipment, and the buffer (following grinding) contains chlorophyll that could interfere with the immunoassay.
Farmers frequently administer anti-fungal treatment prophylactically, without conducting a test for the presence of fungal organisms because they are concerned that they will be unable to detect a fungal infection soon enough after infection to administer effective treatment.
Costly fungicides are therefore being liberally administered when there is a mere suspicion of a pathogenic fungal infection. This unwarranted administration of potentially toxic chemicals causes a threat to the consumer and the environment and greatly increases production costs.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a rapid, sensitive method for the detection of a plant fungus infection.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a kit for the detection of a fungus infection of a plant.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for extracting fungus from plant tissue that is simple, rapid, and cost-efficient.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an extraction solution for extracting fungus from plants.